If you’ve ever wondered how a songwriter stays hungry after three decades, Bush‘s Gavin Rossdale has a simple answer: don’t let yourself off the hook.
Rossdale is still chasing great songs with the same intensity that helped launch Sixteen Stone into the stratosphere.
Speaking with TotalRock’s Hobo On The Radio at the Download Festival in the United Kingdom, he reflected on how his songwriting process has evolved and why he’s more demanding of himself than ever before.
“Well, I just love making music, and to me writing songs is my favorite thing to do, and I try and push myself and challenge myself,” Rossdale said.
While he’s never been interested in copying other vocal styles, he admits he’s inspired by heavier music and the energy it brings.
“There’s a lot of inspiration with all the heavier music that I like. And just finding a way to… I’m never gonna try and be a screamer, but I do love having the kind of sexier, heavier, detuned world. I find it really interesting and inspiring.”
That influence found its way into Bush’s latest album, I Beat Loneliness, released in July 2025.
“And that’s where I like to kind of ply my trade right now of writing. And I like that. And I feel more connected to that underbelly and that wild world. And then I have to put my spin on it, and ‘I Beat Loneliness’ is an example of that.”
Rossdale also revealed that some of his best ideas often come from places he can’t fully explain.
“I love music, and I find it mysterious as well. So I think that sometimes those mysterious bits, the weirdest bits I don’t understand, are the ones that kind of give me the better songs.”
For all the instinct and inspiration involved, Rossdale says experience has taught him the value of ruthless editing.
“I feel that I’ve got better at editing myself, but I’m even more harsh than ever.”
That’s especially true now that Bush has ten studio albums behind them and another project already taking shape.
“I just consider that I’ve done 10 records. I’m in the middle of making another one, and I want it to be brilliant, or else there’s really no fucking point.”
For Rossdale, simply releasing music isn’t enough.
“There’s no point in just bringing out a record. You can write a record but you gotta write the record. So that’s all I’m interested in, is trying to be as brilliant as I can, because why not? Why not reach for the stars at all times?”
That mindset means plenty of material never survives the editing process.
“I chuck a load of stuff out that I don’t like or I don’t think is good. So I don’t consider myself so great that I’m, like, everything I do or say is wonderful.”
Sometimes, Rossdale says, the strongest lyric emerges only after pushing through several weaker ideas first.
“Often I’ll write a whole set of words, five, six lines, to get to what starts to be interesting. And you’re not gonna get to the line six onwards unless you leapfrog, stepping stone, across the kind of, ‘All right, start this,’ whatever.”
After more than 30 years since the release of Bush’s six-times-platinum debut Sixteen Stone, Rossdale still sounds less interested in celebrating past accomplishments than chasing the next great song.
The band’s current lineup features Rossdale alongside Chris Traynor, Corey Britz and Nik Hughes. Since reforming in 2010, Bush has released six studio albums, including The Sea of Memories, Man On The Run, Black And White Rainbows, The Kingdom, The Art Of Survival and I Beat Loneliness.
With Rossdale already working on album #11, could Bush’s best still be ahead of them?
